The Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA's) enforcement effort and practices at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch (W.Va.) mine had a number of significant failures before the April 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners, according to MSHA’s own report on its actions released today.

MSHA’s George Fesak who led the internal review says:

While there was no evidence linking the actions of MSHA employees to this tragedy, we found instances where enforcement efforts at UBB were compromised because MSHA and District 4 [the MSHA district with jurisdiction over the mine] did not follow established agency policies and procedures.

The report finds that inspectors “failed to inspect key parts of the Upper Big Branch mine, did not properly step up enforcement actions, and missed major coal-dust violations” prior to explosion, writes The Charleston Gazette’s Ken Ward.

Mine Workers President (UMWA) Cecil Roberts says the report on MSHA’s actions at the nonunion mine “illustrates the many shortcomings of that agency with respect to enforcing the law at UBB.”

Required inspections were not completed. Logbooks where critical information was supposed to be recorded about the conditions of the mine were not examined. MSHA District 4 supervisory personnel did not follow up on what were clearly flagrant violations of the law. These and many other failures allowed Massey to continue to get away with violating the law and putting its employees in danger every single day. April 5, 2010, was one day too many. 

Roberts also says that the report indicates that "the inspectors who were tasked with working at UBB were new and inexperienced."

Many had not even completed all their training. This is a nationwide issue at MSHA, the result of years of neglect and indifference by the Bush administration. But frankly, that's still no excuse for what occurred at UBB.

“It is clear the entire system failed these 29 miners,” says Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), who cites:

Congress’s failure to maintain adequate and experienced staffing at MSHA over the years, to the agency’s failures to fully enforce the Mine Act, to the inherent weaknesses in that law, to a company hell-bent on exploiting all of those weaknesses. 

After meeting with families of the Upper Big Branch victims today MSHA Administrator Joe Main told reporters:

I don't think there's question that MSHA could have done better. I don't think there's any question that we surely plan to do better.

One former Massey supervisor has been sentenced to a jail term and two have been convicted or have plead guilty.